Food delivery service in Saudi Arabia: challenges and key solutions
Jan 13, 2024
The revenue of the food delivery market through electronic platforms in Saudi Arabia exceeded 9 billion Saudi Riyals in 2022, and experts expect revenue to grow at a compound annual rate of 7.5% during the period 2022 - 2026.
The statistic mentioned reflects the extent of food delivery service penetration in the Kingdom and the reliance of many people on it. In this article, we will address some important axes regarding food Delivery Service in Saudi Arabia, its mechanism of action, and its most prominent challenges. Let's start with the definition.
What is food delivery service from a logistical perspective?
It is a service that aims to transport food from restaurants and deliver it to people in different places such as homes or workplaces by shipping companies specialized in providing this service or representatives working in restaurants. This service has spread all over the world thanks to technological progress and the availability of smart applications and electronic platforms that have facilitated the process of ordering food online and tracking the progress of orders until they are delivered at the specified time and place.
It is worth noting that this new pattern of order delivery has given consumers a pleasant experience to obtain a wide variety of delicious meals and dishes anytime and anywhere by relying on a delivery company without the need to spend effort and time to go to their favorite restaurants.
The mechanism of food delivery varies according to the business model followed and the nature of the commercial activity, which is explained in the following paragraph.
The mechanism of food delivery from commercial activities and restaurants to customers
The mechanism of food delivery generally depends on two models:
The first is food delivery directly from the restaurant to the customer:
This model relies on the customer ordering food through a delivery program, a dedicated platform, or an electronic application. The order is then directed to the restaurant, and after it is ready, the restaurant takes care of delivering it to the customer. This business model is suitable for large commercial activities that have the logistical assets and capabilities that qualify them to do this easily.
The second is food delivery from the electronic platform to the customer:
This model does not differ much in terms of the customer ordering meals through the platform or electronic application and directing orders to restaurants. However, the difference is that the platform sends its representatives to receive the orders once they are ready from the restaurants and then deliver them to customers at the specified place and time. Most emerging and small commercial activities that offer fast and non-fast meals rely on this model due to their lack of logistical assets and capabilities to deliver food directly to the customer.
It is worth noting that commercial activities of all sizes have faced many challenges in delivering food to consumers in the fastest time and with the best quality.
The most prominent challenges facing commercial activities and restaurants in delivering food to consumers
As is the case with any field, there are many challenges facing commercial activities and restaurants in delivering food to consumers quickly and with high quality. Among the most prominent of these challenges are:
1. Compliance with local laws and regulations:
This is one of the biggest challenges facing commercial activities and restaurants that provide food delivery service to consumers, as compliance with local laws and regulations is an urgent necessity to ensure consumer safety. To overcome this challenge, it is necessary to:
Adhere to local legislation related to licenses, permits, food safety and transportation controls.
Adhere to food safety requirements set by local authorities, by ensuring the quality and purity of the ingredients used in food preparation and packaging.
Follow strict health procedures during food storage, preparation, and delivery to consumers.
Work to monitor and evaluate compliance with local regulating laws and regulations and identify weaknesses to address and improve them in accordance with the laws in force.
Adherence to local laws and regulations should be one of the priorities of commercial activities and restaurants to deliver food to consumers in good condition, enhance public safety, and preserve health to avoid any risks, God forbid.
2. Reducing delivery costs:
Delivery costs include the delivery fees charged by the restaurant to the customer, in addition to the subscription fees for the online delivery service, and the service fees charged by the delivery driver. All of these fees combined represent a major obstacle for commercial activities and restaurants that provide food delivery service, as they directly affect profits. Therefore, reducing delivery costs is important to maintain profitability and increase sales.
You can use these tips to reduce delivery costs:
Rely on high-quality and low-cost food delivery service providers who help you reduce your delivery costs by linking with the best food delivery companies to deliver food to consumers at the lowest cost and best quality.
Harness the power of technology to manage and track orders and determine the best delivery route.
Use sustainable vehicles such as electric cars or electric motorcycles, just as the Jahez Saudi Arabia platform does, to reduce fuel and maintenance costs.
Collaborate with other restaurants in your area to reduce delivery costs by delivering orders from several restaurants at the same time or using the same drivers.
Set reasonable delivery fees so that customers do not back out of orders.
By following these tips, you, as a business owner, can significantly reduce the costs of food delivery to consumers and achieve more profitability.
3. Maintaining food quality:
Imagine if you ordered food and it arrived cold or its quality was affected by temperature and transportation until it reached you. What would your reaction be?
From this perspective, maintaining food quality is one of the most important and biggest challenges facing restaurants and commercial activities that provide food delivery service to consumers, as unappetizing or stale food can lead to customer disappointment and dissatisfaction, and thus loss of confidence in the commercial activity and not repeating the experience again.
In order to provide a distinguished experience for consumers and deliver food with high quality, it is necessary to:
Choose the appropriate delivery method: You should know that the delivery method has a direct impact on the quality of the food that will be delivered. For example, some foods that spoil quickly, such as rice or pasta, need to rely on express delivery to reach the consumer with high quality so that they can enjoy it when eating.
Plan the delivery time: Care should be taken to pre-plan the food delivery time so that it reaches consumers with the best quality.
Maintain the food temperature: It is necessary to rely on appropriate means to maintain the food temperature during the delivery process. For example, thermal bags or insulated containers can be used to keep the food hot or cold to provide a distinguished experience for consumers.
Maintain food safety: Strict procedures must be followed to maintain food safety during the delivery process, including observing personal hygiene standards for delivery teams, ensuring safe handling of food, and using clean and appropriate means of transportation for food delivery, etc.
Rely on smart packaging: Smart packaging technologies can be used to maintain food quality, including the use of product packaging techniques that allow breathing for foods that need ventilation, using barriers to maintain flavor and moisture, and using individual packaging techniques to prevent Cross Contamination between foods.
These are some of the procedures and tips that can be followed to maintain food quality when delivering it to consumers, and it is important to focus on training teams and applying strict standards to ensure customer satisfaction is maintained and an excellent food delivery experience is provided.
4. Fast and efficient delivery:
If customers expect products such as electrical appliances and clothing to arrive as quickly as possible, what about food?
Commercial activities and restaurants face a major challenge related to the speed of food delivery to consumers who expect it to arrive within minutes, otherwise they may feel frustrated and dissatisfied. This requires overcoming many challenges such as:
Different destinations for orders.
Traffic congestion.
High number of orders.
And other challenges that require effective strategic planning to ensure food delivery in the fastest time and with the best quality.
5. Intensity of competition:
The food delivery sector is witnessing a significant increase in the number of service providers, especially with the great technological development and the presence of the Internet. It has become easy for restaurants and other commercial activities to enter the delivery market, which leads to increased competition and the pursuit of providing better and more attractive service to customers.
To overcome this challenge and make your commercial activity unique in this sector, it is necessary to:
Focus on providing real value to customers in terms of food quality, competitive prices, and speed of order delivery.
Focus on continuous innovation and investment in technology to meet customer needs and differentiate yourself from competitors.
Give customers a distinguished delivery experience through the ability to track orders and monitor their movement until delivery.
Offer a diverse menu of dishes and offers that differentiate you from competitors.
Rely on various digital marketing strategies to increase awareness of your commercial activity and attract more customers.
The most important tips for providing fast and efficient food delivery service
Choose the appropriate means of transportation
To achieve the required speed for food delivery. For example, a motorcycle is suitable for urban areas with traffic congestion, unlike cars, which may be more effective in other areas.
Use smart route planning techniques
Route planning programs allow identifying the best options to avoid congestion and arrive at the ideal time.
Delivery management programs help distribute orders and regions with high efficiency.
Inventory control and availability of ingredients:
Monitor your inventory carefully to ensure the availability of basic ingredients to prepare food quickly and avoid delays in delivering orders to consumers.
Ensure the availability of the most requested items such as meat and vegetables to meet all orders.
Maintain a list of standard ingredients in case some items are missing.
Group delivery strategy:
Cooperation with external sources:
Cooperate with highly experienced external sources that provide you with the necessary capabilities to deliver food in the fastest time and best quality.
Take advantage of specialized delivery services to cover areas outside the scope or with high population density.
Agree with delivery companies to share the kitchen or logistics services to save time and effort.
For example, Oto – the leading shipping gateway in the Arab world – allows you to deliver your orders within 40 minutes by linking with its distinguished partner Tookan, in addition to the possibility of managing your orders and inventory and controlling all of that from a smooth and simple control panel, and thus providing a distinguished delivery experience to your customers. You can start now after creating a free account in Oto.
Communication between the delivery team and the kitchen:
Make sure that there is good and smooth communication between the delivery team and the kitchen team to reduce food preparation time and improve general coordination, and thus improve the efficiency of food delivery operations and make them faster and more efficient.
Hold short daily meetings to discuss the mechanism of work and expected orders.
A system to notify the kitchen of orders directly to prepare them as quickly as possible.
Coordination in case of delay or cancellation of any order to avoid loss.
Group delivery strategy:
Adopt the group delivery strategy in case of delivering multiple orders in the same area, which saves time and effort.
Collecting customer orders in the same area to deliver them in one trip.
Determining the best routes to cover the largest number of customers.
Saving travel time and reaching more orders.
Documenting delivery operations
Document and record all delivery operations, time spent, distance traveled, and any other relevant details to help you analyze your performance and identify weaknesses that need improvements to raise the efficiency of food delivery to consumers.
An electronic record that includes the details of each delivery, such as time and distance.
Data analysis to measure performance and uncover weaknesses.
Improving operations based on the information derived from the documentation.
By following these tips, you will be able to improve the efficiency of food delivery and make it more effective and faster, and thus enhance the competitive value of your commercial activity.
These are some tips that can be taken to enhance the competitive value of your commercial activity and outperform competitors in the food delivery market in the Kingdom. It is worth noting that the field of food delivery is of great importance, which we talk about in this paragraph.
The importance of the food delivery sector:
The food delivery sector is of great importance, as it has contributed to giving customers a distinguished experience that enables them to obtain various delicious foods and meals without any effort. Accordingly, this field has multiple benefits, including:
Providing comfort and ease for customers, as they can order food from home or the office without the need to go out to eat at their favorite restaurants.
Access to a variety of restaurants, which allows customers to order food from any restaurant in all parts of the city
Boosting the local economy and providing job opportunities for various segments of society.
Increasing sales of commercial activities by providing the possibility of ordering food from various restaurants, or even from restaurants that do not provide the delivery service themselves.
Reaching customers in remote areas who do not have the ability to easily reach restaurants.
Not being restricted to a specific time to order food so that orders can be placed at any time of the day.
Conclusion
In our time, food delivery has become easier and more widespread than ever before. With one click of a button, you can order a meal from your favorite restaurant and have it delivered to your doorstep, office, or anywhere you want within minutes. There are many trends that are expected to affect the food delivery industry in the coming years, and perhaps the most prominent of these trends are the increased demand for express delivery, the spread of drone delivery, and other trends that require you to keep pace with technological changes and sustainable planning to enhance the competitive value of your commercial activity and achieve the maximum possible return on investment.
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